- BRUSSELS -- Over half of
Europeans think that Israel now presents the biggest threat to world peace
according to a controversial poll requested by the European Commission.
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- According to the same survey, Europeans believe the United
States contributes the most to world instability along with Afghanistan,
Iran, Iraq and North Korea.
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- The specially commissioned poll which asked citizens
15 questions on "the reconstruction of Iraq, the conflict in the Middle
East and World peace", has caused controversy in Brussels.
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- The European Commission is coming under fire for publishing
the results of a number of questions - relating to Iraqi reconstruction
- while failing to publish the results which revealed the extent of mistrust
of Israel and the United States in Europe.
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- A Commission spokesperson today (30 October) denied that
the decision to withhold some of the results until next Monday was politically
motivated, adding that some of the results not yet published are still
"unstable".
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- He did, however, add that a decision was made to publish
a preview of the questions pertaining to the reconstruction of Iraq, to
coincide with the Iraqi donors conference in Madrid, which took place at
the end of last week.
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- This admission has raised questions about whether the
Commission sought to suppress the results which would have came at a particularly
sensitive moment.
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- One pollster involved in the survey told the EUobserver
that some questions being raised about the poll were unfounded.
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- "The questions were decided upon by both the polling
organisations and the European Commission", the source said.
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- Israeli officials dismissed the results of the poll as
propaganda.
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- According to Spanish daily El Pais, a massive 59 percent
of Europeans said they believed that Israel is the biggest obstacle to
world peace.
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- The poll, conducted by Taylor Nelson Sofres/ EOS Gallup
Europe, was conducted between 8 and 16 of October. Copyright 2003 EUobserver.
All rights reserved.
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- http://www.euobserver.com/index.phtml?aid=13324&sid=9
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